India needs 600 MMT refinery capacity by 2040

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India needs investment to the tune of 300 billion dollars in the next 10 years to double its oil refining capacity, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's statement.

"Oil refining capacity in the country stands at over 247 million ton at present and demand for petro products, which is rising rapidly, will touch 600 million ton by the year 2040," Pradhan said.

Noting that the country has built a robust refining and petrochemicals sector over the years, the minister said several brownfield projects are already in the pipeline for creating capacities of around 142 million tons.

Pradhan said two major greenfield projects are all set to be launched to add 69 million ton of new refining capacities soon. The Barmer Refinery in Rajasthan will be of 9 mtpa, while the West Coast Refinery and Petrochemicals will create 60 million ton capacity. To achieve the target of 600 million ton capacity, it is necessary to add over 20 million ton almost every year, he said.

Emphasizing the need for a state-of-the-art refining and petrochemical industry, he said it is necessary to concentrate on research and development in the public sector.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DuPont has contracted Toyobo to manufacture DuPont Apexa biodegradable polymers, developed by DuPont Industrial Biosciences, using Toyobo's aluminum-based GS Catalyst, as per GV.

Toyobo plans to produce the biopolymers at its Iwakuni production center in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, starting 2018. In addition, the partners have agreed to jointly promote the use of Apexa globally.

"Compared with conventional degradable plastics such as polylactic acids and polybutylene succinate, DuPont Apexa excels in durability and heat-resistance," Toyobo noted.

"It has good processability and practicability, close to those of polyethylene terephthalate plastics," it added.

As MRC informed earlier, on 31 August 2017, Dow Chemical Co and DuPont successfully completed their planned USD130 billion merger to form DowDuPont. Dow and DuPont announced the merger in December 2015.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Crude oil exports by Iraq state-oil marketer SOMO ran at an average rate of 3.5 MMbpd in January, an Iraqi oil official said on Monday in Baghdad, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

With two more days left in January, the average of the month could top December's 3.535 MMbpd record, SOMO's acting director general Alaa al-Yasiri told reporters. Total exports for the country should be higher as SOMO does not control oil sales from the northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, estimated at more than 200,000 bpd.

"SOMO's recent export rate increase is not due to higher production, but to a drop in local consumption," he said. It was not immediately clear why consumption had fallen.

Exports could increase further as Iraq plans to start exports next week from the northern Kirkuk oilfield to Iran, using tanker trucks, he said.

Trucking crude to Iran's Kermanshah refinery will come under a swap agreement announced last month by the two countries to allow a resumption of oil exports from Kirkuk. Iraq and Iran have agreed to swap up to 60,000 barrels per day of crude produced from Kirkuk for Iranian oil to be delivered to southern Iraq.

Kirkuk crude sales have been halted since Iraqi forces took back control of the fields from the Kurds in October. Kurdish forces took control of Kirkuk in 2014, when the Iraqi army collapsed in the face of Islamic State. The Kurdish move prevented the militants from seizing the region's oilfields.

Iraq and Iran are also planning to build a pipeline to carry the oil from Kirkuk to avoid having to truck the crude, Luaibi said last month. The planned pipeline could replace the existing export route from Kirkuk via Turkey and the Mediterranean.

With an output of 4.4 MMbpd in December, Iraq is the second-largest producer of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), after Saudi Arabia. The country is producing below its maximum capacity of nearly 5 MMbpd in implementation an agreement between OPEC and other exporters including Russia to curtail global supply in order to support oil prices.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Pumping on Colombia's southern Transandino pipeline was halted on Sunday after a bomb attack by the ELN rebels spilled crude into a river, state-run oil company Ecopetrol and the military said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The National Liberation Army (ELN) is in the midst of a renewed offensive against the military and oil infrastructure, after the end of a months-long ceasefire amid peace talks to end more than 53 years of war.

The attack, which occurred late on Saturday in Mallama municipality in Narino province, has not affected exports or crude production at fields in the southern jungle zone along the border with Ecuador, Ecopetrol said.

The 109-mile Transandino has the capacity to transport 85,000 barrels of crude per day.

The ELN, which has some 2,000 fighters, has killed two police officers and one soldier in attacks since the ceasefire ended on Jan. 9. The group on Saturday kidnapped an Ecopetrol contractor repairing damage to the Cano-Limon pipeline, also bombed by the ELN, the army said.

President Juan Manuel Santos has recalled the head of the government's negotiating team at the peace talks in Quito back to Bogota to discuss the future of talks.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) has received board of directors' approval to invest in a new olefins project at Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate, Rayong Province, Thailand, as per Apic-online.

The project, expected to cost about USD985-million, in-volves a new facility with a production capacity of 500,000 t/y of ethylene and 250,000 t/y of propylene, using naphtha and liquefied petroleum gas as the main feedstocks. Commercial operations are planned to begin in 2020.

Once complete, PTTGC's nameplate olefins capacity will increase to more than 3.7-million t/y from nearly 3-million t/y currently.

An engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreement for the project was signed on 23 Jan. 2018, the company noted. Details of the agreement were not given; however, according to a Korean press report, the EPC contract was awarded to Samsung Engineering.

In 2016, PCN reported that the company was also planning to carry out a feasibility study for downstream production of acrylic acid, styrene, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and polystyrene, among others.

As MRC informed before, PTT is on track to start commercial operations at its new 400,000 mt/year metallocene C6 linear low density polyethylene (MLLDPE) plant at Map Ta Phut, Thailand, in the first quarter of 2018. PTT had started up the plant by the end of last year.

PTT currently has a total capacity of 800,000 mt/year of HDPE, 300,000 mt/year of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and 400,000 mt/year of LLDPE at the same site.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC